Here is where generations of family have lived for more than 25 years with no claim to country, where they are dying from famine in a desert along Kenya's eastern border with Somalia. They live along what is considered a pathway for terrorists who strike both countries.

The families in Dadaab still cling to the frayed ties that bind them to their families and clans thousands of miles away in the heartland of the United States, a place called Minnesota where their relatives are growing deep roots to begin a new life for a freed generation that breathes air filled with hope instead of despair. To them, Minnesota is a promised land that offers rebirth despite the new political and immigration obstacles that now stand in their way.

One in five people living in Dadaab has a relative living in the Twin Cities. In an unprecedented trip by a Minnesota journalist, KSTP-TV investigative reporter Farrah Fazal traveled to Kenya and Somalia to tell the stories of families separated, of terrorists trying to gain ground, of a harsh famine stealing the lives of infants and children before they have a chance to make it from Hell to the Heartland.

In the coming weeks, Farrah will be filing stories following her journey that took her to Dadaab, and to a refugee camp in Kismayo in Somalia where the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee is trying to shelter people who are told by the Kenyan government to leave Dadaab. Farrah also traveled to Mogadishu, the Somali capital where Somali-Americans from Minnesota have returned to use their energy to rebuild their former country and raise a society out of the ashes following a brutal civil war.

Kismayo - A humanitarian agency helping the refugees coming from Dadaab is based in Minneapolis. American Refugee Committee is the only humanitarian agency in the world with a country office in Somalia. View photos of Kismayo here.

Mogadishu - The capital city of Somalia, where you'll see people wearing a Vikings shirt or cap and where dozens of Somalis in Minnesota are now going back to help rebuild a country considered the most corrupt in the world, and where terrorists are trying to own its streets.

The crew traveling with KSTP's Farrah Fazal around Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

KSTP's Farrah Fazal has been on a mission to find 3-year-old Anfac and her grandparents. Anfac's parents had to leave her behind with her elderly grandparents two years ago.

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Farrah shows images to a young girl in a Dadaab refugee camp

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Farrah listens to the stories of those in and near the refugee camp

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Fardosa, who worked her way past the four armed guards traveling with KSTP's Farrah Fazal, said she hasn't seen her sister living in Minneapolis for 25 years. They were separated when they escaped to Dadaab refugee camp from Ethiopia.

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Anfac walks with others in the camp to get supplies

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Anfac waits with others in line

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Anfac gathers supplies within the camp

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Kismayo is a port city in Somalia

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Kismayo was known as Somalia's 'California coastline'

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

In recent years, the American Refugee Committee (ARC) created a program to build boats and teach people here how to catch fish

KSTP/ Farrah Fazal

Sacdia teaches her neighbors how to tie dye and paint Henna so they too can earn a few dollars